A proposal by county of Marin planning staffers to limit the role of community planning boards was deemed “dead on arrival.”

The planning department’s leadership should have remembered why these boards were formed in the first place. Those issues are as important today as they were 40 years ago.

There is no question that the county-appointed boards are time-consuming for county staff. Time usually has budgetary consequences.

They are also considered, by their members and supporters of a more inclusive public process, to be the first line of defense against bad planning decisions. They are a mandatory step in the county’s planning process, but their role is advisory, as the final decisions still rest with county planning staff, the Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors.

But these panels — in the unincorporated areas of Tamalpais Valley, Strawberry and Kentfield — are made up of people who will be living with the county’s planning decisions, decisions that will affect the community when it comes to traffic, aesthetics and, possibly, property values.

In the case of Strawberry, the design board was formed because the community felt it wasn’t being heard by the county. In fact, there were rumblings of forming a new city in order to garner more local control.

That was in the 1970s, and concern about planning decisions hasn’t gone away. The debate over the future of the seminary campus is a prime example.

Given that dust-up, the county’s timing couldn’t have been worse.

This also isn’t the first time the county has considered reducing the time commitment and participatory role of the design boards. Each time, those proposals have been scrapped, usually drawing the same response from the community.

“It resonated as something that was out of sync with everything else that has been going on in the community,” commented Strawberry Design Review Board member Julie Brown.

County staff said the proposal was to focus boards’ reviews on issues pertaining to compliance with the county-approved community plans.

The community did not see it that way.

The county is right to look at ways to be more efficient when it comes to the time and cost of reviewing building proposals, large and small. But limited public involvement in those decisions is a non-starter and often has fueled prolonged political and legal battles.

These boards also should be expected to operate efficiently and not become the source of costly delays, either for builders or the county.

But administratively reducing their role at a time when local land-use decisions are among the top concerns in many Marin communities seems shortsighted and out of touch.

Perhaps it was a trial balloon. If so, it barely got off the ground before it was blown to pieces in the court of public opinion.